For many people their retirement plans have been interrupted by various falls in stock markets, low annuity rates and the recent lack of growth in the buy-to-let marketplace brought about by changes in the taxation of income from buy-to-lets. What does a comfortable retirement look like for you, and can you improve what you will retire on?

Stakeholder pension schemes are low-cost pensions meant for people without existing private pension arrangements. They were originally targeted at people who earn more than £10,000 a year and who cannot join an occupational pension scheme. They have, however, turned out to have much broader appeal.

The Government has changed the age rules for qualification for the state pension. The state pension age was equalised at 65 for both men and women in 2018. From 2019, the state pension age will increase for both men and women to reach 66 by October 2020. The Government is planning further state pension age increases from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028. The state pension age would therefore increase to 68 between 2037 and 2039.

State pension deferral is the right to defer entitlement to the state pension. In return for deferring for a period of at least nine weeks, the resulting pension increases by 1% for every nine weeks’ deferral, an approximate annual rate of 5.8%.